I'm debating between Giancoli or trying to use Apologia Physics and advanced Physics in one year.

2 questions
1 - Is using Apologia Physics and Advanced in one year a possiblity? Or even 3 semesters?

2- I'm concerned that Giancoli would not be as self teaching and would require a lot of prep on my part. I did take 13 hours of physics in college but that was 20 years ago. With a baby due this summer a lot of prep work from me isn't going to happen. Any comments?

This is for my son that will be a junior and likes math and science and in 8th grade went through the Conceptual Physics book.

Our ds completed Apologia Physics on a block schedule (one semester) this fall, but it was tough. He is a senior used to a very full schedule. At the time, he carried: Calculus, English (British lit and grammar), African History, College Composition I (community college), Anatomy and Physiology I (community college), and Physics (block scheduled). He completed all the labs with lab reports except two which we omitted. It wasn't so much an issue of the material being too hard and too fast; it was more an issue of lots of work to complete for all his classes in addition to working 16-20 hours per week. Overall, I think Apologia Physics and Advanced Physics are doable within a year depending on the student and his schedule.

I'm not sure about Apologia Physics & Advanced Physics in a year, but... doing two Apologia Advanced courses in a year wasn't doable for my very science-oriented ds, a high school senior.

The plan was to double up and do a module per week in Advanced Chemistry & Advanced Physics, but with ds's other obligations -- part-time job + a very heavy music & band & choir schedule + college visits/scholarship applications/ACT testing + a full course load (Modern Literature, Modern History, College Algebra, Religion & Philosphy, American Government, plus the science courses) -- it just wasn't possible.

Also, you didn't say what science courses your ds had for 9th & 10th grades, but if your ds has not already had a couple of Apologia courses and is not familiar with Dr. Wile's approach, there would be that learning curve to consider as well. My ds had already done Apologia General (6th), Apologia Physical (7th), a Space Science course in 8th (from FLVS ?), Apologia Biology (9th), Apologia Chemistry (10th), & Apologia Physics (11th). He earned an A in each of them, and in fact has maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout high school. In spite of all of this, though, doing both Apologia Advanced Chemistry and Apologia Advanced Physics in one year was not doable for him. He didn't need another science on his transcript, but he LOVES science, especially chemistry, so he chose to do the Advanced Chemistry this year, and so far, he has an A average.

But your mileage may vary! ; ) If your ds is a good science (& math) student, is already familiar with Dr. Wile's style, and doesn't have all of the extra-curriculars to contend with, doing two courses in a year could work for him.

My son did Conceptual Physics in 8th and Apologia Bio and Chem in 9th/10th. He likes science but he isn't sure he wants to do a total of 3 years of physics(counting 8th). I'd like a strong Physics program but I'm sure I won't have much time to devote to it. So I was trying to figure out if I would need both Apologia books to equal the Giancoli text in rigor/coverage. It sounds like he could easily finish Apologia Physics in less than one year, but both in one sounds pretty tough.

My ds is doing both this year, as a junior. He *is* very science oriented, but he's not finding the pace of the material too difficult. You know, you could always begin this way and see how it goes. If it gets to be too much, slow it up. Is there a reason he must have a certain amount of physics? Because at the end of the year you could just call it good, regardless of whether he completely finished the second book.

I'd encourage you to try it. What do you have to lose? At the most, he spends a few extra weeks finishing up physics over the summer or in the fall.

Have you used this? I explored the website and sent some questions to them. What do you see as the pros of Kinetic Physics?

Thanks,Kendall

Haven't yet used it but it lines up perfectly with AP Physics (could drop two chapters), has very solid coverage of the major areas of physics and I like the interactivity as well as the virtual labs. It competes very nicely with Saxon Physics (without that awkward spiral approach) and covers all that Apologia reg and Adv would do. Hope you get your questions answered. I only offer it as a new alternative. Being selected, along with Giancoli, as a College Board AP text are key points in it's favor, imho.

We are using Kinetic Physics, the conceptual version, and I like it quite a lot-- it has excellent graphic tutorials, in short lessons, and the worked problems are great. They lead you through the process. Very nicely done! And all for $35 or so...

While I think doing both in a single year would be really tough, your son has going for him the fact that he already has done Conceptual Physics. I think a better option would be to take three semesters to go through both Apologia physics books. With only sixteen modules in each course, and 20 weeks in a semester, that would give him 60 weeks to do 32 modules. The pace of one module in two weeks is easy to keep up, and there are a number of modules, especially early in the first book, that can be easily finished in a single week. It probably wouldn't take him quite the full three semesters if he pushed himself to do the easier modules in a single week. I really do think he will have a great advantage already having studied some physics before.

My oldest son used Giancoli, and did great with it, but I didn't even attempt to teach it myself, despite a decent physics background, too. He took the AP Physics course through Scholars Online, which used Giancoli. It's the same textbook used for non-science majors at his university. He learned a lot, but I am sure he wouldn't have learned nearly so much if I had tried teaching him myself. I just didn't have the time to do it well.